Puma partners with Moncton startup

But don’t look for ads in this golf app

A Moncton, New Brunswick-based startup has landed Puma as its first brand sponsor.

The company, Foursum, is the maker of a mobile golfing app – an “online country club” – that allows consumers to track their golf games, connect with other players and compare scores with friends.

Foursum will partner with Puma’s Coba Puma Golf brand to offer a series of sponsored in-app golf challenges. The first, called the Cobra “Go Looooong!” challenge, tasks the app’s users to drive the ball ten miles of yardage between May and June.

The first 150 users to complete the challenge and post their badge to Facebook or Twitter will receive a limited edition Cobra/Foursum branded golf hat.

As part of the partnership, Puma sponsored golfers Rickie Fowler, Graham Delaet and Blair O’Neal will join Foursum, creating profiles and tracking their games so that fans can follow along.

Foursum president and co-founder Matt Eldridge told Marketing that prior to inking the deal, the startup made a list of the top golf brands it wanted to work with and Puma was at the top. “Fortunately for us, we got it,” he said.

Rather than a paid advertisement, Eldridge said the sponsored challenges are a win/win partnership “about brand synergy and validating the challenges.”

Eldridge said, “We will consider brand partnership as a revenue model, but it certainly is not the purpose of aligning ourselves with brands like Puma.”

He said the company is set to introduce its revenue model in the coming months and noted while brand sponsorships may be part of Foursum’s revenue in the future, it is not considering display ads.

“There will never be an ad inside the app. We refuse to clutter the beautiful interface of Foursum with banner ads,” he said.